Travel Time Reliability and Truck Level of Service on the Strategic Intermodal System Part B: Truck Level of Service

Commercial trucks, the leading transportation mode for freight movement, are vital to our economy and people’s lives. The importance of this mode has become greater as the demand for just-in-time delivery, lower inventory, electronic commerce, and Less-than-TruckLoad (LTL) shipping has increased. This study was conducted under the Florida’s Strategic Intermodal System (SIS) plan in an effort to better understand the needs of the Florida trucking community by investigating their perceptions of truck trip quality on various roadway facilities. The current Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) provides analytical methods to evaluate performance levels of transportation facilities and estimate Level Of Service (LOS) perceived by the users. The HCM methodologies yield a single LOS value for all the users in a traffic stream. However, due to the unique size and operating characteristics of trucks, it is possible that truck mode users perceive LOS on various roadway facilities based on different criteria from those of the other mode users. This study focused on identifying the determinants of LOS perceived by truck mode users and measuring their relative importance based on which truck LOS estimation methodologies should be developed. The traffic, roadway, and control factors important to truck trip quality were identified through focus group studies and the relative importance of each factor was determined from a follow -on survey study. The quality of a truck trip generally was found to depend on three issues: travel safety travel time and physical and psychological driving comfort. The results of this study provide the FDOT with guidelines and recommendations to develop truck LOS estimation methodologies to effectively assess how well it is addressing the needs of freight transportation on the state roadway system and offer transportation service providers and other stakeholders valuable insights for the prioritization of transportation improvement projects for commercial truck traffic.